Abstract
The paper presents a theoretical approach for describing the influence of an electric field on the conformation of an electrically neutral dielectric polymer chain dissolved in a dielectric solvent with an admixture of a target compound. Each monomer and each molecule of the target compound carries positive excess polarizability and the solvent is described as a continuous dielectric medium. The model is based on the Flory-type mean-field theory. We demonstrate non-monotonic dependences of the expansion factor and the concentration of the target compound on the strength of the electric field and molecular polarizability. Namely, the target compound concentration in the internal polymer volume as a function of electric field strength has pronounced maxima if the molecules are polarizable. In addition, the expansion factor of the non-polarizable polymer chain can be controlled by the electric field. The dependences of the expansion factor and target compound concentration on the monomer polarizability exhibit minima and intersection points. The intersection points correspond to the equality of dielectric permittivities in the bulk solution and in the internal polymer volume.
Highlights
Laboratory of NMR Spectroscopy and Numerical Investigations of Liquids, Ivanovo, Russia particles carrying a net electric charge and dielectric particles carrying permanent or induced dipole moments
The application of an electric field to dielectrics may lead to different effects, for instance, electrostriction and dielectrophoresis
Recent papers[34,35] have shown that the application of a homogeneous constant electric field leads to dielectric polymer expansion, regardless of the conformation. These studies have investigated the influence of the many-body electrostatic dipole correlations of monomers on the conformational behavior of polymer chains.[35,36]. These papers have demonstrated that when the excess polarizability is positive, the application of an electric field to a polymer solution always leads to electrostriction swelling of the polymer chain
Summary
The theoretical physics of dielectric polymers still remains a terra incognita. there are several works devoted to the thermodynamic properties of dielectric polymer solutions and polymer brushes. Shkel and Klingenberg formulated generic models of solid material electrostriction.[28] Suo suggested theoretical models of dielectric elastomers which are strongly deformable under an applied electric field.[29] There are some works on the electrostriction of polymeric gels[30,31] and copolymer melts.[32,33] Recent papers[34,35] have shown that the application of a homogeneous constant electric field leads to dielectric polymer expansion, regardless of the conformation (coil or globule) These studies have investigated the influence of the many-body electrostatic dipole correlations of monomers on the conformational behavior of polymer chains.[35,36] These papers have demonstrated that when the excess polarizability is positive, the application of an electric field to a polymer solution always leads to electrostriction swelling of the polymer chain.
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